Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 17:55:03 +0000 (GMT)
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Subject: WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 722  [2000524]
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U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa

Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Update 722 (Tuesday 23 May)

CONTENTS:

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL to set up radio station
SIERRA LEONE: Learning from the difficulties
SIERRA LEONE: Reports of fighting at Rogberi Junction
SIERRA LEONE: Discovery of mutilated bodies causes shock SIERRA LEONE:
Concern over food shortages in Makeni
SIERRA LEONE: Jackson urges Congress to fund peace effort
LIBERIA: Libyan helicopters to help evacuate UN peacekeepers
GUINEA-BISSAU: Human rights under a cloud
NIGERIA: Cholera kills 60 in southwest
COTE D'IVOIRE: Special crime fighting units dissolved
WEST AFRICA: Training in child rights for military trainers

SIERRA LEONE: UNAMSIL to set up radio station

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is to set up its own radio
station as part of efforts to expand its public information office, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the Security Council on
Monday.

In recognition of UNAMSIL's need to set up a countrywide public
information campaign, the Department of Public Information conducted an
assessment from 13-20 March 2000 of public information needs. On the basis
of the team's recommendations, Annan said, efforts are ongoing to increase
significantly the capacity of the UNAMSIL public information office "as a
matter of priority", including the setting up of its own radio station.

The station would help UNAMSIL face a significant challenge in
disseminating information on the peace process in a country whose
infrastructure has been damaged by years of warfare, Annan reported.

"Radio UNAMSIL is expected to play a significant role in the Mission's
efforts to inform the people of Sierra Leone, independent of any party or
affiliation," he said. Equipment for such a project was donated to the UN
in 1998 by the Danish government and has been transferred to UNAMSIL. The
public information office would also include units for liaison with the
media, video and print production and community outreach, Annan added.

SIERRA LEONE: Learning from the difficulties

The United Nations will have to learn from the many difficulties its
mission in Sierra Leone has faced in recent weeks, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said in his latest report to the Security Council.

"Looking back on recent events, it is obvious that the United Nations will
have to draw lessons from its experiences in Sierra Leone," he said in the
report, issued on Monday. "The force, which had been designed, equipped
and deployed as a peacekeeping force, was quickly forced into actual
combat with one of the parties that had pledged to cooperate with it."

[See separate item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: Annan notes need to learn from
recent difficulties']

SIERRA LEONE: Reports of fighting at Rogberi Junction The past 24 hours
have been reportedly calm in Sierra Leone, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said
on Tuesday.

However, in recent days there had been sporadic fighting between
pro-government forces and rebel troops at the strategic crossroads town of
Rogberi Junction, northeast of Freetown, government, humanitarian and
other sources reported.

The most recent clash reportedly occurred on Tuesday when Revolutionary
United Front (RUF) forces attacked Sierra Leone Army (SLA) troops, but
were driven off, Reuters reported the SLA commander at Rogberi Junction as
saying. Sierra Leone's information minister, Julius Spencer, could not
confirm this.

However, he told IRIN on Tuesday that there had been fighting there on
Sunday night and that government forces were in control of the town. He
was unable to give any details of casualties.

There have been unconfirmed claims by pro-government forces that they are
moving towards Lunsar.

SIERRA LEONE: Discovery of mutilated bodies causes shock

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "is shocked by reports from Sierra Leone
that several mutilated bodies have been found wearing United Nations
uniforms," the secretary-general's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, reported.

Sierra Leone government forces discovered the bodies on Monday in an area
northeast of Freetown. Humanitarian sources in the Sierra Leone capital
said a UN team travelled to the area on Tuesday to investigate.

"At this time, it is by no means certain that the bodies belong to United
Nations peacekeepers," Eckhard said on Monday. "However, the
Secretary-General is appalled by the culture of violence and cruelty which
pervades the conflict in Sierra Leone. He calls on all parties to respect
fully international humanitarian law and recognized standards of human
rights."

The Secretary-General hopes that the continuing efforts by regional
leaders will lead to the expeditious and unconditional release of all
United Nations personnel detained by the Revolutionary United Front.

SIERRA LEONE: Concern over food shortages in Makeni

There is concern about the deteriorating food situation in the northern
RUF stronghold of Makeni, according to humanitarian sources. Road access
has been restricted, quadrupling the price of rice, and some residents are
being forced to rely on mangoes as their staple diet.

Before the clashes between rebel and government forces began early this
month, the NGO Action Contre la Faim was feeding more than 200 severely
malnourished children and over 2,000 moderate cases. Vital aid programmes
have been stopped since the security situation in the country deteriorated
and ACF said they would not resume until it improved.

There have been reports of the widespread burning of homes in Makeni,
sources said.

SIERRA LEONE: Jackson urges Congress to fund peace effort

US presidential envoy Jesse Jackson said if the United States was
unwilling to field soldiers in Sierra Leone, then the US Congress should
authorise money to support allied troops ready to enforce peace in that
country, news reports said.

"These troops must have a peace enforcement mandate, not a peacekeeping
mandate," Jackson told AP. Otherwise, he said, they would be targets for
RUF rebels who have been detaining UN peacekeepers.

Jackson's statement came on his return from a West African tour to try and
find a solution to the present crisis in Sierra Leone. Jackson helped to
broker the Lome peace accord which ended eight years of war between the
government in Freetown and RUF until the rebels broke that deal by
detaining the UN troops.

Jackson also told AP that if the rebels refused to disarm voluntarily they
should be forced to do so. The United States and other allies have asked
Nigeria to send additional troops to Sierra Leone. Nigeria has agreed to
do so but says someone else must pay the bill.

The US Congress is holding back some US $226 million dollars it owes for
UN peacekeeping activities, AP said.

LIBERIA: Libyan helicopters to help evacuate UN peacekeepers

Libyan helicopters arrived at Liberia's Foya airport on Monday for
possible use in the evacuation of wounded UN peacekeepers detained by
Sierra Leone's RUF rebels, PANA reported, quoting a Libyan Embassy
statement in Dakar, Senegal.

The agency said Libya had also sent doctors.

Diplomatic sources in Monrovia confirmed that Libyan helicopters had been
made available to the Liberian government but could not say how they were
being used. The United Nations Office in Liberia told IRIN that
commercially chartered helicopters were used on Monday to evacuate to
Monrovia 29 UN peacekeepers released by the RUF at Foya, 250 km north of
the capital.

West African leaders at a recent summit gave Liberian President Charles
Taylor a mandate to negotiate with the rebels and a Liberian government
team is in Sierra Leone for that purpose. Taylor has called for an end to
the hostilities, saying that attacks against the RUF are delaying the
release of the detainees, news organisations reported.

Freed peacekeepers arriving in Monrovia are medically screened and
treated, if necessary, by Liberian doctors at the city's Spriggs Payne
airport, a source said. More difficult cases are referred to the city's
John F. Kennedy Hospital, the largest in the country.

UN sources told IRIN that one Gambian UN officer detained by the RUF,
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Mendy, was being treated in Sierra Leone at the
Kono Hospital, where he had been taken by his captors.

GUINEA-BISSAU: Human rights under a cloud

Guinea-Bissau is on the verge of falling back into a habit of human rights
violations if nothing is done to stop current abuses, the chairman of its
human rights league, Inacio Tavares, said.

His comments, broadcast over the private radio station, Pingikiti,
followed threats Tavares said he received for denouncing the beating of
electricity utility workers by soldiers thought to be loyal to the former
military junta leader, General Ansumane Mane, PANA reported on Monday.

The soldiers had acted, PANA said, following a power outage at their
Bissau base, where Mane lives.

In another incident of intimidation, PANA said, President Kumba Yala's
bodyguard fired on the building housing the `Diario de Bissau' newspaper
before entering and threatening Bakary Mane, a reporter who had written
stories about the excessive spending of the first lady.

More recently, PANA added, "soldiers have stepped up threats and
intimidation against the local media amid a tug-of-war between (the
military) and the government following the dismissal of the navy
commander, Lamine Sanha."

Sanha said he would not go unless ordered by Mane. It was under a similar
situation - when then president Joao Bernardo Vieira dismissed Mane - that
the latter launched an uprising, eventually toppling Vieira in mid-1999.

NIGERIA: Cholera kills 60 in southwest

At least 20 people died of cholera at the weekend in the Ilaje local
council, southwestern Nigeria, bringing the death toll since the outbreak
of the disease to 60, `The Guardian' of Lagos reported on Tuesday.

It said council Chairman Adebowale Ajimuda told reporters that the recent
casualties included a soldier posted to Ilaje during recent communal
clashes in the area. The soldier died a few hours after being admitted to
a private hospital. About 100 other victims are hospitalised in various
health centres in the area.

The newspaper said residents were fleeing to neighbouring communities and
were avoiding stream water for fear of contracting the disease.

COTE D'IVOIRE: Special crime fighting units dissolved

Cote d'Ivoire's military authorities have decided to dissolve special
crime-fighting units set up after a December 1999 coup, the Ivoirian
leader, General Robert Guei, announced at the weekend.

The units, called PC crises (crisis command posts) were set up within the
armed forces to function as a type of military regular police and to
assist the police and gendarmerie in the fight against crime.

However, they had been accused by human rights advocates, especially the
Ligue ivoirienne des Droits de l'Homme (LIDHO), of committing
extra-judicial executions and other abuses.

WEST AFRICA: Training in child rights for military trainers

Military trainers from member countries of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) are to participate in a workshop in Cote d'Ivoire
on the rights and protection of children in conflict.

Each country is to send two trainers to the workshop, which is a joint
initiative of ECOWAS and Save the Children Sweden and which will be held
on 12-24 June at the Peacekeeping School at Zambakro in the centre of Cote
d'Ivoire. Participants will learn to train soldiers, whether deployed
internally or as peacekeepers, on children's rights and protection during
conflicts, Save the Children reported in a news release. They will be
joined on the last two days by a dozen war-affected children from the
region who will share their experiences with them.

ECOWAS comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and Togo. Mauritania notified the regional organisation some
months ago that it intended to withdraw from it, a process that takes a
year.

ABIDJAN, 23 May 2000; 18:00 GMT

[ENDS]

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(Editorial Desk): 225-22-41-9339; e-mail:irin-wa@irin.ci]




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